A Thinking Reed

  • Save the whales!

    Here’s a sad article about the danger that “right whales” (originally so named because they were considered the “right” whales to kill on account of their tendency to float on the surface after being harpooned) face from shipping vessels and the political lobbying that is trying to prevent new regulations aimed at saving this endangered…

  • ABC on abortion

    Also via Thinking Anglicans, Rowan Williams writes about abortion in Britain and the “slippage” from a presumption of extending protection of fetal life with exceptions for extraordinary circumstances, to a presumption of liberty of choice with respect to abortion. It seems to me that the U.S. is, if anything, more locked into the language of…

  • Anglicanism, protestantism and “denominational families”

    Interesting piece by Alister McGrath in the (Anglican) Church of Ireland Gazzette. He argues that Anglicanism is, historically and theologically, Protestant and that the concept of “denominational families” – the kind of loose federations that characterize world Lutheranism and Methodism, for example – could provide a fruitful model for the future of the Anglican Communion.…

  • Aliens without sin

    Recently I’ve been reading A Case of Conscience by James Blish. This is a science fiction novel written in the 50s about a Jesuit priest/biologist studying a race of reptillian anthropoids on a distant planet. They have a seemingly perfect ethical society without friction or conflict, but also utterly destitute of religion or any sense…

  • Indie rock

    Too white or too class-based? Or just sexless and boring? 😉

  • Friday metal – bonus

    Just cause I feel like it and have been listening to this album today: Killswitch Engage, “My Last Serenade”:

  • Friday metal – Fishbone edition

    Okay, metal is a bit of a stretch, but there are definitely some metal inflections (along with funk, rap, reggae, etc.). More importantly, they’re just good. “Fight The Youth” “Sunless Saturday”

  • A theological argument for women’s ordination

    I’ve never really taken much interest in debates about women’s ordination – it’s always seemed to me to be a bit of a non-issue. I realize there are ecumenical matters at stake, but in sheer theological terms it’s not something I’ve ever particularly wrestled with. I’ve been a member of churches with women pastors and…

  • +Rowan on Dawkins, et al.

    See here for a streaming video of a recent lecture by Rowan Williams on the “new atheism.” Mad props to Richard at Connexions who was present.

  • Abortion on film

    Interesting review of the new abortion documentary Lake of Fire in this article (scroll down). I can’t say that it exactly makes me want to see the movie, but the idea of attempting to make a movie on abortion that treats both sides fairly is certainly a laudable one (link via Ross Douthat).